Mama E Takes a Bow

“It’s always profound to look back and see how God weaves together the many threads of our lives.”

For Rosalind Allen-Enciso, that reflection captures a journey that began far from Oaks Christian School and unfolded in ways she never could have predicted. After earning her teaching degree in New Zealand, she moved to the United States to pursue professional acting, stepping into a world of performance and possibility. Yet even then, something greater was taking shape.

“I never could have imagined that two decades later I’d be called into service at Oaks Christian School.”

What began as a career in acting became a calling that blended her love of storytelling and her gift for teaching.

Before coming to Oaks Christian, she was a professional actor for 25 years, appearing in hundreds of commercials and television shows including "All My Children," "Seaquest DSV," an playing the "it girl" in the marine biologist episode of "Seinfeld."

“That journey led me here,” she reflects, “where I’ve had the privilege of combining my educational background and professional experiences to serve as director of theatre arts.”

As one of the founding members of the school’s arts program and an original OCS employee, she didn’t just step into a role: she helped define what arts education at Oaks Christian would become. What followed was not just a job, but the work of her life.

When she arrived, Oaks Christian was still small enough for the entire student body to gather in Disciples Chapel.

“Those early years at Oaks hold a special place in my heart,” she says. “We were such a small community back then.”

But what they lacked in size, they made up for in faith and vision. The theatre program itself was something waiting to be brought to life.

“Our journey of igniting student imagination and creativity began modestly in 2000,” she recalls, with performances staged in a former band room. From there, the program continued to grow into larger spaces, gaining momentum and drawing in students who were eager to create.

Then came a defining moment.

In 2007, Oaks Christian School opened the Bedrosian Pavilion with “The Diary of Anne Frank,” a production that would come to represent the heart of the program. For Rosalind, it was never just about putting on a show. “Our mission in the arts was to tell stories that don’t just entertain but inspire.” That vision came alive as the production expanded beyond the stage, inviting audiences into a deeper experience through a student-led exhibition that connected history, storytelling, and faith.

It was a glimpse of what the program could become.

And it didn’t stop there.

“Theatre was just the start,” she says.

Over the years, artistic expression at Oaks Christian expanded into dance, music, and large-scale performances that brought the entire community together.

Still, for all the growth, the heart of her work remained unchanged.

“When I arrived at Oaks Christian School, the theatre program was just a dream. Together, we built it from the ground up, creating a place where stories could be told, voices could grow, and students could discover confidence, creativity, and community," she reflected.

Over the past 26 years, that dream became a legacy: with more than 50 productions and hundreds of students impacted, countless lives were shaped in ways both seen and unseen.

But the numbers don’t tell the real story. The real story is in the students themselves.

“Watching generations of young artists step onto the stage—and into who they’re becoming—has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.”

Allen-Enciso was named Best Director for "Godspell" in 2015 by the Jerry Herman Awards, the Tony awards of high school theatre. She was also nominated for an actual Tony in the educator category of the prestigious awarding organization. She is also a past recipient of the OCS Atsinger Award for Teaching Excellence.

Now, her OCS journey ends, but it fittingly does so at the point of beginning. Her final production was the encore performance of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” this spring, the same story that helped define the program years ago.

After 26 years as a founding voice and guiding force in the arts at Oaks Christian, her legacy is not only in the productions she directed, but in the program she helped build and the community she helped shape.

“The Oaks Christian theatre family has always been about more than the stage,” she says. “It’s about the people who made it home.”